Reviews with content warning for Bullying - City of Girls

Reviews tagging 'Bullying'

City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert

2 reviews

greatexpectations77's review against another edition

adventurous challenging funny lighthearted reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

I enjoyed this very much and moved through it quickly. Ms. Gilbert has quite a knack for fiction, which surprised me a little because not everyone can do both fiction and non-fiction so well. A fun tale of the young and stupid days of our 20s, and the selfishness that keeps us alive. Also very interesting look at the impact of war.

Content Warnings

thepretentiouspoet's review

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By the time I was 10 pages into this book, I was certain that I would adore it. It had everything I had been hoping for, plus many other wonderful qualities, and I was fully expecting to race through to the end in a few sittings.
However, when I reached near to the 100 page mark, an event happened which horrified me and completely ruined all of my faith in the story. I continued on for a further 10 pages in the hope that the characters would acknowledge how awful what had happened was, but instead it was justified and laughed over and completely forgiven/forgotten.
For a story that is praised for its portrayal of female friendships, I was shocked that nobody else seems to have taken issue with this moment in the story, and that none of the many reviews that I skimmed through mentioned this. The moment in question (with no spoilers) is when Vivian loses her virginity, for reference of those who have read it, and below I will discuss why I felt it was so irredeemable for this story within the spoiler markings so that you can go into it without spoilers if you should still want to read the book.
Fair warning though - there is bullying, peer pressure, minimising, sexual exploitation, forced prostitution, an adult/minor sexual relationship, infidelity, and one of the most mortifying sex scenes I have ever read.

I could not believe that a story supposedly celebrating female friendship could very early on show Celia and the other show girls to pressure Vivian into becoming "one of them" by coercing her into believing that she had to lose her virginity now that she was associating with theatre folk in New York. I understand the time period of the story, but Vivian tells this in retrospect. At no point does she acknowledge what an awful thing this is for an older girl to do to someone young and new to a city, who idolises them - pressure them into sleeping with a cheating older man who routinely pays for the other show girls to be his personal set of prostitutes. Vivian adores Celia for no real reason, and so it is abhorrent for Celia to then manipulate Vivian in this way. I was expecting for there to be some ramifications for Celia within the plot, or that Vivian would at least temporarily dislike her for treating her like this, but as soon as Vivian has finished losing her virginity to the awful Doctor, the girls are laughing about it and encouraging her to move on from the experience. I was horrified to read about the experience, firstly, and even more horrified that it was so trivialised within the plot. This would be less of an issue had Celia and the other showgirls then had any form of backlash for their actions, but Vivian still dotes on them, still thinks they are wonderful people, after they have pressured her, at the age of 19, to be prostituted for the sake of losing her virginity. How can this truly be a story celebrating female friendship when there is such a betrayal of trust within the first few weeks of Vivian becoming infatuated with this vain, manipulative woman? I couldn't bear to read more after this.

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